Three collisions slow traffic in Desert Center

It was a busy time late Friday night and early Saturday morning for first responders in Desert Center as CAL FIRE and officers with the California Highway Patrol responded to three collisions in the area in a span of about nine hours. Two of the crashes were fatal.

The first crash was a two-vehicle traffic collision around Highway 62 Highway 177 in Desert Center. It happened at around 9:30 Friday night. Firefighters arrived at the scene and reported a two-vehicle traffic collision with significant front end damage to both vehicles, and a total of four patients.

Two people at the scene and were trapped; one inside each vehicle. The other two patients had moderate injuries and were both transported by an air ambulance to an area hospital.

A few hours later, another fatal crash happened just after 11 p.m. on the eastbound side of the freeway at the off-ramp for SR-177 according to the California Highway Patrol.

A 43-year-old Mexican citizen traveling eastbound on I-10 in a 2010 GMC Big Rig when the vehicle veered to the right onto the dirt shoulder and overturned in the embankment. A 67-year-old passenger was ejected from the vehicle in the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision.

It is unclear at this time what caused the Big Rig to veer off the road at this time. Alcohol and/or drugs do not appear to be a factor in the collision.

At around 6:30 a.m., another collision occurred where a man was hit by a vehicle on the Eastbound Interstate 10 west of Eagle Mountain Road. CAL FIRE said the man was transported by ground ambulance to an area hospital in critical condition.

Stay with News Channel 3 & CBS Local 2 for the latest developments on this story.